Abstract The paper argues that a Neoplatonic reading of classical Arabic poetry can help to understand the cosmological implications of its figurative language and provide a new conceptual framework for comparisons between Arabic literature and other literatures, both European and Middle Eastern. It begins with an outline of Neoplatonic cosmology with reference to the Arabic adaptations of Plotinus’s Enneads which appeared in the ninth century CE. The mirroring relationship between microcosm and macrocosm posited by that cosmology is identified as reflected in the metaphorical language which became prevalent in Arabic poetry with the rise of the badīʿ style, in the ninth century. The analysis of an example by Ibn al-Muʿtazz leads the argument to shared features in the Qurʾanic and the Neoplatonic understanding of divine unity which has implications for the concept of “ambiguity” in classical Islam as developed by Thomas Bauer and, with it, for the polysemous use of poetic language. The concomitant dialectic between the one and the many as operative in the Neoplatonic cosmic hierarchy is found to be the objective correlate of the “aesthetics of wonder” identified in classical Arabic poetry by Lara Harb. The paper concludes with comparisons between Arabic and non-Arabic literatures in the light of Neoplatonic poetics. Several examples are given to illustrate its potential as an analytical framework for the transcultural literary history of the Middle East and Europe.

Abstract The real challenge of understanding myths arises when we attempt to inspect their representational role within a certain literary work, and we find ourselves at an inevitable crossroads: the desire to explore the euhemeristic qualities of the mythological elements in the narrative, and the need to investigate the symbolic significance of the narrative’s mythical elements. In his 2014 dystopian novel ʿUṭārid, Muḥammad Rabīʿ traverses the fine line between mythology and mythopoeia by employing mythical archetypal structures to create a mythologically infernal world rooted in the abject reality of the post-2011 Revolution Egypt. This paper examines how Rabīʿ addresses a pivotal point in history through myth, and how his narrative tries to bridge the gap between the mythological and the mythical in order to reach a better understanding of the role myth plays in processing and reshaping reality.

Abstract This article analyses statistical differences in the use of rhetorical elements in classical Arabic poetry in three different periods: Pre-Islamic (5th to 6th centuries CE), Umayyad (7th to 8th centuries CE), and close to three ʿAbbāsid centuries (8th to 10th centuries CE). Ninety-five poems from these periods have been rhetorically analysed. The study reveals that poetry moved from a periphrastic mode in the pre-Islamic period toward periphrastic-metaphoric in the Umayyad period, then towards metaphoric in the ʿAbbāsid era. The internal rhetorical fabric also shows that dependence on other rhetorical elements and sub-elements differed during the three periods. Moreover, the study shows that ʿAbbāsid poetry, when developed, depended more heavily on pre-Islamic than Umayyad patterns.

Abstract ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078 or 474/1081) revolutionized Arabic-Islamic theories of metaphorical language (majāz) when he distinguished between the mechanism of majāz on the level of the lexeme and that on the level of predication. Some modern scholars have pointed to tensions between majāz and poetic language, especially in the realm of metaphorical predication (majāz fī al-ithbāt). In this article I revisit key passages in al-Jurjānī’s Asrār al-balāghah and Dalāʾil al-iʿjāz and argue that majāz fī al-ithbāt is a case of (what modern linguists call) nonprototypical causation. It is a property of natural language and, unlike poetic metaphor (istiʿārah), does not convey a comparison. “Spring brought about the blossoms” is al-Jurjānī’s prototype example, which he theorizes in depth. I then explore the poetic potential of majāz fī al-ithbāt by analyzing the poetry he adduces. I contextualize al-Jurjānī’s theories in early grammar and philology, sciences with which he was most affiliated.

Abstract This article focuses on the notion of ightirāb in the works of three poets: Muẓaffar al-Nawwāb (1934–2022), Maḥmūd Darwīsh (1941–2008), and Ḥusayn al-Barghūthī (1954–2002). The article explores the multi-dimensional meanings of ightirāb and argues that ightirāb is a processual and cyclical experience that is approached and confronted through poetic expression. Standing at the center of the discussion, al-Barghūthī attests to the impact of the works of al-Nawwāb and Darwīsh on his writing. Theoretically speaking, al-Barghūthī analyzes major elements in the two other poets’ production, one of which is their approach toward ightirāb. As such, al-Barghūthī’s work is both analyzed as a case study and used to provide a theoretical framing for this article. Ightirāb, as shown in the examples of the three poets, is explored through contradictions, oppositions, and the dialectics of construction and de-construction.

Abstract This article proposes that the concept of maskh is employed in Arabic literary texts as a polysemic figure of transformative change, dynamism, and an affirmative rethinking of the modern. While outwardly signaling disaffection, maskh inwardly propels creative action, giving way to experiments with narrative form, genre, and poetic language. From the mid-20th century to contemporary writing, maskh in Arabic literary writings serves as a site where the ugly and deformed in modern realities are encountered, processed, and transmuted into artistic form. Maskh may also indicate translational dynamics, adaptive practices and intercultural contact. I trace its formative role in the inception of qaṣīdat al-nathr and in feminist ibdāʿ. Its impact for post-1967 fiction is also analyzed, specifically for this fiction’s depiction of regime aggression against citizens. The argument running through the readings is that attention to this trope can assist in defining the singularity of literary texts as opposed to other modes of cultural discourse. Taking a cue from recent efforts to produce an “Arabic theoretical lexicon” accessible to Anglophone scholars, this article follows an Arabic concept with a long cultural history to argue for its ongoing resonance in diverse intellectual contexts.